KAWARAU GORGE.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 203, 30 September 1873, Page 5

KAWARAU GORGE.

—«. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) The past has been an unusually lively week in mining matters for our generally monotonous little place. Gorman and party have washed up on Surface Point, with, I believe, splendid results ; as may be inferred from the fact that a one! third share in the race and claim has changed hands at the figure of £6OO, or thereabouts, and the same price, or near it, has been offered and refused for another. The fortunate purchaser is Mr W. Rowe. This gives colour to my assertion in a previous letter that this claim promised to be one of the most permanent in the district; at any rate, others appear to think so. The old Lord Byron race and plant has now become the property of the Mountaineer Co., by amalgamation with Mr J. Towan. The company now consist of Messrs Towan, Redhead, and M'Minn, who are now busy forming the new diversion of road. The cuttings in this do not prove so heavy as was anticipated, and the party will soon be able

to commence sluicing operations, with all the facility which plenty of water and good dam accommodation can confer. Mr Olsen washed up in his lower claim last week, with what result I do not know, but conclude from the fact of his making a fresh start in the same place, that the ground is at least payable. The weather for the past week has been move boisterous and unsettled than usual, even for this time of the year, and every person is complaining of the ills to which alternate exposure to water and wind appear to make the sluicer more particularly liable. Kheumatism in all its various forms is particularly rife among us at present, and more particularly amongst those who may fairly be called the pioneers of the district. Whether it is only a passing affliction attendant upon the weather for the time being, or whether the aforesaid pioneers have reached the limit of human endurance before rheumatism intervenes as a regular daily visitor, your correspondent knoweth not ; but such is the fact. The fairer portion of the community, too, are not exempt, as may be seen by their swelled and flannel-concealed faces.